Your Sweet Spot

Finding Your Sweet Spot In Life

Mike Donghia writes at The Art Of Minimalism. He speaks passionately about the intersection of freedom and adventure through a minimalst perspective. Learn more about him by subscribing to his his blog or checking him out on Twitter.

—————————————————-

In baseball, the sweet spot is the part of the bat that transfers the most energy to the ball while producing the least sting to the batter’s hand.

If you’ve played, you know about the sting. It sucks. And it’s largely you’re fault for not hitting the ball with the right part of the bat.

But when you do connect in just the right spot, you’ll know about it. Boy will you know it!

Your life has it’s own sweet spot.

Chances are, you’re not happy. What makes me say this?

Well, you see, most Americans aren’t happy. They’re bored, medicated, and addicted to cheap thrills like eating slop from a drive-through window or watching hours of brainwashing, mind-numbing crap on TV. I’m sure the readers of this blog are an exception (as most people following a simplicity blog are) but chances are, you know more than a few living like this.

When you slip into this lifestyle, what you’re really saying is this “Life sucks. There’s nothing better out there, I’m stuck with this.”

But friend, listen to me. There’s a better way, and it isn’t just for the rich, the famous, or a lucky few. It’s for everyone. It’s called living life in the sweet spot. I’m doing it. And I know a ton of people throwing off the shackles holding them down and doing it too.

How the sweet spot will radically change the world.

There’s a huge difference between your ho-hum, everyday life and your life in the sweet spot. The change starts with a paradigm shift in your understanding of life’s amazing potential.

In fact, that’s the secret. People living in their sweet spot see the world in a radically different way. Instead of challenges, they see possibilities. Instead of strife and controversy, they seek union and togetherness. Instead of dead-ends and win-lose situations, they live by their own rules where everyone wins.

What an amazing perspective. If everyone committed one day a week to practice living like this, we’d save the world.

And if just one person – you – stopped living like the rest of mainstream American, and started living intentionally, we’d start a wildfire of hope across this nation. It takes just one person to inspire a multitude.

What exactly is the sweet spot (and how do you find it)?

The thing about this whole equation is that you won’t get there without deliberate action. You’ll need to reevaluate what you’ve been taught about life, and start following your passions instead of what the you’ve been told is safest.

The next step is step is easy. Your sweet spot is the place where your greatest joy meets a need in the world. And we all know what gets us excited. We’ve just never imagined that it could be so important, so we’ve slipped into on to the backburner while we do “more important stuff” like working a 9-5, investing in mutual funds, and following the latest news blurb from Washington.

You’ll find that life in your sweet spot is effortless, like smiling at a baby’s laughter. That’s a sharp contrast from the majority of American’s who dread Monday mornings and look for any distraction to get them through another 8 hour shift in the cubicle.

Here are a few indicators that you’ve found your sweet spot:

• You’re uber excited about the future, and what it holds in store.
• You don’t want to sleep, you’d rather stay up late working on something (not because you have to, but because you’re so fired up about the work you do).
• You’re constantly day dreaming about possibilities and imagining new opportunities.
• Your life rocks; you smile often, laugh too much, meet amazing people, and don’t consider what you do for a living “work”.
• You’re mad. Mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time. You never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like a fabulous yellow roman candle exploding like spiders across the stars. (Jack Kerouac, On The Road)

Warning: stop now and kiss your life goodbye.

OK, so you’ve got a vision of what you’re life can be. Don’t stop now. In fact, now is the most dangerous time to stop. If you put the brakes on here, you’ll be the most miserable person alive. And the reason is this: a large majority of people have never thought seriously (and openly) about life, they don’t know the amazing potential they have. So really, they don’t know what they’re missing out on. You on the other hand have had a taste, a morsel from the king’s table. And now, anything else you eat will taste like dumpster dirt.

Now’s the time to take action. In order to find you’re sweet spot, live it on a daily basis, and continue regularly, you’ll need to cultivate a few life-long habits. Here are a few to get started:

1. Cultivate a passion.
Don’t be a jack of all trades, pick one area and obsess over it. Become an expert in that field. It doesn’t have to be overnight, some people say it takes 10,000 hours to become great at anything.

2. Listen to that nagging voice in your head.
I didn’t listen to that voice until recently. So, I went my entire undergraduate career banking on law school. But that’s not what I wanted, I’m an entrepreneur at heart, and that’s the path I’m taking now.

3. Surround yourself with like-minded people.
You might have dreams and plans and ideas, but they probably won’t get off the ground without a lot of support. Find your sweet spot by developing deep friendships with people who have similar interests. And then encourage each other to live the dream.

4. Learn from others.
Read books about people living in their sweet spot. And talk to people with that sparkle in their eye. Ask questions. Listen intently. Learn everything you can from them.

5. Do something big.
Something so big, it blows your mind. If it fails, so what? You’re a better person for the experience. If it succeeds, who knows where it might take you.

6. Let your creative juices flow.
Often, the only thing holding us back is a lack of imagination. We can’t imagine our life any other way, so it stays the same. We don’t imagine our potential to change, so we don’t. Open your mind to the endless stream of possibilities, they’re all around you.

Change starts now.

If this post has inspired you to start a serious search for meaning, I’d encourage you to find support from people who know you and love you. If you know someone who really needs this message, share it with them: email it, retweet it, print off a copy and tape it to their desk. Just make sure it gets to them.

Photo by Mike Baird